[A]s dust begins to settle in the wake of an incentive program that paved the way for hundreds of Vermont state employees to retire, state agencies are beginning to evaluate the toll it will take on their operations.
Some 221 state employees, all of whom were already eligible for retirement, took up the incentive offered by the state in a bid to save money. But of the posts they left vacant, the state could refill only 55.
The incentive has left the hardest hit departments of state government piecing together a new vision of what smaller groups of employees can accomplish.
Fourteen people retired from the Department of Environmental Conservation, in the Agency of Natural Resources. None of those positions are slated to be refilled.
In a department with a staff of 320, and a total budget of $52 million, their absence will be felt, Commissioner Alyssa Schuren said.
The retirements were spread evenly across the department, Schuren said, and she has requested that many of the positions be filled. The full impact of the 14 retirements hasn’t been felt, she said, because some of the workers will not retire until as late as March.
Schuren said the department is still managing the impact of nine vacancies from the rescission last year.
The department may consolidate job responsibilities and will look for other efficiencies.
Schuren will work with the Shumlin administration and the Legislature to address the way the job vacancies will alter workflow.
“You can’t just absorb cuts like this without having an impact,” Schuren said. “So the question is, where can that impact have the least harm, or where can that impact allow us to do our work differently?”
According to numbers from the Agency of Administration, the retirement incentive will reduce the General Fund budget by $2.6 million in fiscal year 2016. The program is expected to save $4.5 million in FY 2017.
When the administration presented the numbers to lawmakers at a meeting of the Joint Fiscal Committee last week, some lawmakers were startled by the numbers.
Rep. David Sharpe, D-Bristol, chair of the House Education Committee and a member of the fiscal oversight panel, said he was dismayed that the state would not hire replacements for any of the five positions left vacant in the agency that is the focus of his legislative work.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t express my disappointment that positions weren’t refilled in the Agency of Education,” Sharpe said.
Sharpe said that the agency, responsible for overseeing Vermont’s public schools, took a serious hit during the Great Recession. He added that the agency is strained with the rollout of new programs, including the controversial education reform law, Act 46, which was enacted this year. In addition, the agency is in the middle of implementing a new pre-kindergarten law and must certify some 1,500 preschool teachers.
The agency, he said, “is suffering greatly, in my opinion.”
Meanwhile, across the Agency of Transportation, 54 people retired. Only 15 of those positions will be refilled. Those vacancies are going to leave a mark, Transportation Secretary Chris Cole said Tuesday.
“You can’t lose 39 people and still do all of the things you used to do,” Cole said.
A dozen VTrans retirees were snowplow drivers — positions that Cole listed as top priority in deciding which jobs were priorities to fill. All 12 of those jobs will be refilled, along with two mechanic positions, Cole said.
“People wake up and go to work and don’t even think about the person that’s been out there since 3 a.m. plowing the roads so they can get to work,” Cole said.
Cole said efforts to recruit drivers ahead of winter are going well. The response to an incentive program that offers a signing bonus to new drivers has been “overwhelming,” he said. Garages are getting more than 17 applicants for a job that usually attracts fewer than five applications.
Cole expects that the 39 vacancies in other parts of the agency will have an impact on VTrans as the agency works to complete tasks assigned by the Legislature.
“Our capacity to manage the work that the Legislature asked us to manage, in terms of project schedule, is definitely going to be impacted,” Cole said.
